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Helen Doyle Black Collection

Helen Doyle Black (1918-2016) was in the first group of women to enlist in the United States Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) from 1942 to 1946.

Oral history interview with Helen Black
Primarily documents Helen Dorothy Doyle Black's service in the U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) from 1942 to 1946. Black briefly discusses her early life, her father and uncle's service as seamen in WWI, and being raised by her grandparents after her mother's death. She also describes her plans to become a French teacher; tutoring in Nashua, New Hampshire; and teaching English and French in Andover, New Hampshire. WWII topics include the fall of France to the Nazis and the attack on Pearl Harbor. " Black shares her reasons for enlisting in the WAVES. She mentions failing the physical exam and being accepted only after a navy officer spoke for her, and describes the send-off her school gave her. Topics from her basic training at Smith College include: the uniforms, her roommate, radio class, and the Cocoanut Grove fire. Topics from her assignment to the port director's office in Boston include: the civilian response to servicewomen; working as a communications officer and a personnel officer; merchant Marines; using codes; and the death of President Roosevelt. She discusses training in education services in Washington, D.C.; briefly serving at the Oceanographic Institute in Suitland, Maryland; and informing men about post-service job opportunities in Pensacola, Florida. " Black discusses enrolling in the management training program at Radcliffe College in Boston, her reasons for withdrawing from the program, briefly working with the Veterans Administration, and returning to Radcliffe to complete her degree. She also describes her employment as the training director at R.H. Stearns Company in Boston, and in merchandising at Filene's. She shares her reasons for moving to North Carolina and her employment there as personnel director at Myers Department Store, and later as personnel manager at Burlington Industries. She discusses meeting and marrying her husband, her return to New Hampshire, and her move to Greensboro, North Carolina.

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